William Gibbs McAdoo

William Gibbs McAdoo (31 October 1863-1 February 1941) was the US Secretary of the Treasury from 6 March 1913 to 15 December 1918 (succeeding Franklin MacVeagh and preceding Carter Glass) and a US Senator from California (D) from 4 March 1933 to 8 November 1938 (succeeding Samuel M. Shortridge and preceding Thomas M. Storke).

Biography
William Gibbs McAdoo was born in Marietta, Georgia in 1863, the nephew of Confederate general John David McAdoo. His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in 1877 when his father became a professor of the University of Tennessee, and William became deputy clerk of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 1882. He became a lawyer in 1885 and set up a practice in Chattanooga, and he opened an investment securities firm in New York City in 1892. McAdoo became President of the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company and served as the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He worked on Woodrow Wilson's successful 1912 presidential campaign and served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1913 to 1918, presiding over the establishment of the Federal Reserve System and helping to prevent an economic crisis after the start of World War I. During the war, he also served as Director General of Railroads. McAdoo supported segregation within the federal government to prevent racial friction, implementing Jim Crow laws in the north. In 1919, he returned to the private sector as a lawyer. After failed 1920 and 1924 presidential bids (losing due to his support for Prohibition and due to the Ku Klux Klan's backing of his campaign, costing him the Catholic vote), he moved to California, and he served in the US Senate from 1933 to 1938. He died in 1941.